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Harley-Davidson Graphite Gives the Night Train a New Shade of Darkness

If you’ve been living on planet Earth, and are at least marginally interested in the world around you, then you have a general idea of what graphite is. That would be a crystalline form of carbon that you can mostly find in stuff like pencils, but it also makes its way into batteries and electric motor brushes, among others.
Harley-Davidson Graphite 18 photos
Photo: Bad Land
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So, it’s a pretty particular thing, used to make pretty particular things. And that would have you believe that if someone decides to use the term graphite as a name for something, they’d have a pretty good reason to.

But that’s not exactly how things go in the custom motorcycle industry, the birthplace of some extreme machines wearing resounding names just because. Kind of like this thing here, a former Night Train, baptized by a Japanese crew called Bad Land as the Harley-Davidson Graphite, probably just because they have pretty much the same color.

That’s not to say the custom is a lesser machine because of the lack of a better explanation for its name. Like all Bad Land builds, it could easily stand out in any crowd, thanks to the diverse and mostly unique parts used on it.

The bike rides on Rick’s Motorcycles Super Steve wheels, sized in the customary fashion, meaning 21 inches at the front and 18 inches at the rear, and both wrapped in Avon Cobra tires – the rear one is the widest one can get, at 300 mm.

Bad Land itself gifted the Graphite Harley with a number of one-off bits. The list of things you’ll find shaped this way on this motorcycle alone includes the headlight, handlebar, front and rear fenders, the fuel tank, and, most importantly, given how it’s the only modification made to the otherwise stock engine, the exhaust system.

Ken’s Factory supplied elements like the turn signals, while Performance Machine is responsible for the foot controls, all coming together to form a package that looks like it was born to be assembled this way.

The bike was first shown all the way back in 2013, and its current whereabouts are unknown. As is the price the customer who had it made paid for it.
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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